Chapter Her Special PayBack: #6
I walked into the apartment at seven that night. Holly was watching television news and smiled at me as I walked up to her.
I grinned, "Two sales today means I get a big commission check next month. You're still a lucky charm for me."
She grinned back. "Maybe it's because you're a good salesman Phil."
I asked, "How about a drink before dinner so I can come down a little bit from my high?"
She nodded yes and I made the drinks. I toasted her, "To my good luck charm."
She giggled.
We sipped for a few minutes and then I asked, "Are you making much progress with the operations manual?" "Yes." she replied. "In fact, I'm done with it."
"Holly, no one can get through those five hundred pages in a day and understand it. It just can't be done." She smirked as she said, "Wanna bet?"
I replied, "A bet wouldn't be fair. You can't win."
She answered with a challenge in her voice. "Okay Phil, make up a list of questions or give me reports to edit or change using your software package. If I do them right by the time you get home tomorrow, you have to wash the dishes tomorrow. And I'm warning you that what I'm making is going to be super messy."
I was actually surprised and delighted with her challenge. After dinner I went through a list of the most common call back problems I had with my new customers for the last four months and chose the ten toughest and wrote them out. I showed them to Holly who asked a couple of clarification questions.
As I went to bed that night, Holly called after me in a mocking voice, "I hope you know how to wash dishes Phil."
I woke up at one in the morning for a bathroom trip and saw that the living room lights were still on. I grinned to myself and thought that if she got five of the ten correct, I would call it a success.
She came into the kitchen the next morning. I teased, "Late night for you?"
She smiled, "Not real bad."
I only had three sales calls that day and came back at about four. Holly was in the kitchen cooking. She yelled, "Hi, I'll be right out."
She walked into the living room. A smudge of flour was on her forehead and nose. "I haven't made this in a long time, and it's really messy in there."
"Who's going to clean it up?" I asked.
"Why you, of course," she smirked. "But there is one problem we have to talk about first."
"What?"
"One of the test questions couldn't be done right because there is an error in the software."
"Impossible," I said.
"Wanna bet?"
"Sure," I answered.
Holly giggled, "If I'm right that there is a software error, you wash the dishes tonight and Sunday night too."
"Deal," I agreed not realizing I didn't even ask what I would win if Holly was wrong.
Short story: She nailed the first nine examples perfectly showing me what she did and printing out the final products. On the tenth problem she showed me where the software forgot to carry over a column, but then she showed me how to get around the problem.
I was amazed and delighted, and made no effort to conceal my surprise. She relished in my praise. It was obvious that my happiness in her getting the problems correct was a huge upper for her.
I asked, "How late were you up last night?"
She looked a little sheepish and muttered, "Maybe about five this morning."
"Holly..."
She interrupted, "I hate to lose a bet. You didn't say I had to sleep last night."
I just grinned and shook my head.
Holly took mercy on me and helped me clean up after dinner. Thank god for little favors-she used more dishes than I knew I owned. However, the meal was one of her best. Shortly later she decided to crash and recover from no sleep the previous night.
She cooked breakfast the next morning and after the kitchen was clean I suggested we walk to the park. We circled it once and found ourselves at the same table that we sat at a week earlier. Probably the ducks swimming in the pond were the same too.
"Don't you think week one went well?" I asked.
"It was perfect," she said.
Want to know about week two?"
Planning your weekend reading? Ensure you're on 000005s.org for uninterrupted enjoyment. The next chapter is just a click away, exclusively available on our site. Happy reading!
She nodded watching me, but then put her hand on top of mine and said, "Before you start I have to tell you something. Wednesday morning I saw Carol. She got back late Tuesday night, and her mom is going to live. She was really embarrassed that she forgot about me, and asked if I would stay with her now.
"I said no."
Holly stared at me waiting to see me reaction.
"Good answer," I replied watching her grin with relief.
"Now first of all," I continued, "This is another shopping day." At a minimum you need to buy another summer dress, and something appropriate for business calls."
"I have a dress," countered Holly.
"Holly, you have one dress and you look beautiful in it, but you wore it twice now and I think it would be nice to see you in a different dress tonight.
"And you forgot; who's the boss?"
"You," she grinned.
"But what about the business clothes?" she continued.
"Well, that's week two," I said. Week one you were apartment cleaner and cook. Week two we share cooking because you're going to be working a little." "Doing what?" she asked.
"Holly, I've been thinking about this since the moment I saw your resume. I make money by selling the software package, but selling the product involves two things. The first is the actual sale and I can do that with one or two calls on the customer. The second is getting the customer on board to use it. He has sixty days to reject the product and if he does, I lose the commission. So I have to go back five or six times to show them how to install it and use it correctly. A lot of times the employees haven't even read the manual.